District 3 eyes bottom line, cuts 5 days

Published 5:00 pm Tuesday, May 19, 2009

CANYON CITY – Five school days will be cut from the 2009-10 school year, a budget freeze is in place, there will be no staff cuts other than temporary instructional assistants, but teachers who leave are not being replaced.

That’s the bottom line for Grant School District 3 as officials seek to offset a budget shortfall forecast to hit $700,000 to $1 million next year. The shortfall comes as the state faces revenue gap due to the continuing recession.

Along with the declining enrollment – which decreases state funding – the district’s budget belt has tightened over the years, officials said.

Enrollment has steadily declined from 877 in 2001-02 to 728 now. The district projects a student population of 692 for the next school year.

“We’ve been shaving the budget for 10 years,” Superintendent Newell Cleaver said at the May 13 budget committee meeting at the district office. Ironically, while other school districts across the state are reeling from cuts due to the state budget crisis, he said, “We’ve had that mindset all along.”

Although the budget appears to be handled for the coming school year, the state’s shaky revenue outlook is cause for concern. Cleaver said he’s heard some state officials predicting a five- to 10-year turnaround, while others are more optimistic.

“If you ask me where we’ll be a year from now, the answer is I don’t know,” he said. “We honestly don’t know.”

Because the district is cutting five days from the 2009-10 schedule, Grant Union High School will be a little over 20 hours short of the state’s required 990 hours of instruction.

Cleaver said a number of other schools statewide are in the same situation. The district will apply for a conditional standard status which would keep all programs and credits acceptable. The district would then have until the following year to make the corrections – “In our case add those days back.”

There is also legislation being debated that would address that issue, but nothing has been decided on yet.

The superintendent led the budget discussion covering the revenue portion of the meeting while business manager and deputy clerk Carla Averett talked about expenditures.

To prepare for possible future layoffs, the proposed budget includes $73,300 for employment insurance, about a $50,000 increase from last year.

On the plus side, federal stimulus money will help out the Title I programs at Humbolt Elementary School – the only school in the district in the federal program. The $97,000 increase, from $244,000 to $341,000, will boost programs that give students who need it extra help in reading and math.

Stimulus grants will also help special education through an Individuals with Disabilities Act grant of $297,000 – $127,600 more than last year.

The federal stimulus funding cannot be transferred to other areas of the budget, however.

One area of revenue, excess county roads funds, has stayed between $200,000-290,000 since 2007-08 compared with $805,705 in 2006-07.

Cleaver later said that while he’s appreciative of the money that is shared with the school district from that funding source, he had hoped that when county payments restored that those payments would go up and reflect a more historical pattern.

He said the loss of revenue for the schools is creating “dire circumstances.”

“In order to preserve the quality of education we are going to need other funding sources to get through this difficult time,” he said. “We hope that the county would consider increasing the amount that they’re willing to share with the schools from the county road fund.”

In expenditures for “improvement of instruction,” the budget proposes $25,250 more than last year at $42,550. Most of the funds will be spent on textbooks at Mt. Vernon Middle School, Seneca School and Grant Union High School.

The district board’s legal services fund is set to increase from $3,000 to $20,000 due to a couple of cases pending.

Funding to the Humbolt cafeteria will increase by $38,200 to allow for installation of kitchen equipment at Humbolt Elementary. If a separate grant is approved the funding will establish a kitchen facility for the school. Currently, Grant Union prepares and delivers meals for Humbolt.

Sports and athletic programs will continue, although the number of games will be cut.

“It’s a critical part of our overall program and we feel it’s valuable for kids,” Cleaver said.

“We value the quality of our education here and we’re extremely proud of what we’ve been able to do. It is a reflection of not only the outstanding human resources available here in the school district but also the county and the community’s willingness to support our efforts,” he said.

The District 3 Budget Committee will continue its deliberations at 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 27. A budget hearing is set for 6:45 p.m. Wednesday, June 10.